Being only 18-years old, he led Kazakhstan both in scoring (17.4 points per game) and rebounding (9 boards per contest), which isnt saying much considering the strength of his own team. Hes a 6-10 power forward, still very skinny, immature, but with decent athleticism, some skills and feel for the game. You can see hes not used to face strong competition by his great struggles playing off contact. Hes a kid easy to intimidate, even when hes shooting jumpers. Actually, the jumper was his first and most important weapon in the tournament, probably because its the better way to avoid physical contact, but it wasnt really very reliable. He settled for 35% in field goals in the tournament, pretty evenly distributed in 2-point and 3-point shots, both in percentage and attempts. His mechanics looked promising, showing a quick release and a decent form, but still they are not consistent. Also, he sometimes struggled with his shot selection, rushing things too much.
Beyond his perimeter stroke, Ponomarev showed nice handles for a big guy like him, which enable him to attack his rivals, and he was also willing to play in the low post, but he did have little success, not showing much versatility to finish there. On defense, he was regularly outmuscled, sometimes delivered poor positioning and a little bit more of hustle was missed. When it comes to the rebounding department, while he occasionally struggled to secure his own boards, he showed nice positioning in the offensive glass. Anton is a long-term project who surely enjoys nice potential. But for the moment, lets set clear that were not talking about anything close to a big-time prospect.
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